|
|
SE IA | Short story: Packer count is 13hd short of what we sent on the truck. Trucker didn't stick around for scale tickets as weather was crappy and he was ready to head for home. This was probably our fatal mistake as we didn't catch the discrepancy until I got the kill sheets 3days later. Packer says any discrepancy needs immediate attention. They claim they checked tatoo records on loads prior and after ours and all numbers agree. When it's all said and done and look at the price paid per hog, it looks like I was shorted about $2,000 on this load when comparing to similar loads and market prices.
Somewhere in the process there was a breakdown. All hogs get tattooed off the truck, so I'm not sure why the missing head can't be found. I guess I've got two reasons for posting this. One, advice for others to make sure any potential mistakes are caught immediately. Two, does anyone have suggestions for further resolution? I'm contemplating filing a small claims case, but it's really a my word vs theirs and doubt I'd win. My only hope in that case would be they wouldn't show up.
I'm sure some may suggest our count at the barn was off. I had marked prior to loading and trucker said load was full and no extra marked hogs in the barn, so my count matched with the trucker. Find it hard to believe we'd both be off by 13hd. |
|
| |
|
Ne Nebraska | Be interesting if they had cameras at the unload chute to be able to count. |
|
| |
|
| The trucker needs to be scrutinized. By proper authorities. |
|
| |
|
SE IA | That's part of the reason they want immediate notification of discrepancy and where I probably dropped the ball. I'm guessing footage from cameras is not retained for more than a day or two. Obviously from hear on our, scale tickets will be collected on each visit. |
|
| |
|
SE IA | I've had a couple people suggest that to me, but I have 100% faith in the trucker I use. Like I said above, it will be required to collect scale tickets after unloading. |
|
| |
|
Sw mn | On the plus side hogs aren’t worth much. |
|
| |
|
SE IA | Ain't that the truth. Just feels like rubbing salt in the wound at this point. When the last pig leaves the farm in March, I'm probably not going to shed a tear. |
|
| |
|
Eastern Iowa | feel bad for you and feel your pain. But I have never, not even once, gotten any satisfaction from a packer when there was a discrepancy with head count at the plant. |
|
| |
|
| snocrzy - 1/25/2024 10:19
I've had a couple people suggest that to me, but I have 100% faith in the trucker I use. Like I said above, it will be required to collect scale tickets after unloading.
Pardon my jumping the gun. personal experience with soybean and hog theft by trucker |
|
| |
|
SE IA | No offense taken. It's a valid point to consider. |
|
| |
|
south dakota | care to share which packer? Or to say if confinment or bedded pigs? |
|
| |
|
SW WI | The Packers have upped their game ***
Back in my hog raising days, most loads would have 1 pig “unharvestable”. Every damn load. I was small time, but belonged to a feeder pig co op, which in turn was part of a larger group for marketing since it was same genetics, buildings and very similar rations.
Got asking around with the bigger boys who sent multiple loads a week…..same thing to them.
When we started to add up the “ unharvestables” in our group…..that was eye popping.
After we complained, it certainly backed down from the numbers we had seen for a few years.
Hmmmm**** |
|
| |
|
MN | If you go to small claims if you and the trucker have the same story I would think you prevail- the person unloading at the packer is probably an illegal and they won't show up for court- so the packer won't have anyone who was actually there at the unload spot- |
|
| |
|
SE IA | Similar situation here. I once had 5 with "abscesses" on a load. I called their BS on that one real quick. Seems like that problem went away when they found out I actually look at the harvest data closely. |
|
| |
|
Extreme se nebr. | More than once the number counted at the plant did not match the number of hogs loaded. I will say what happyhog asked it was at Sioux Preme |
|
| |
|
SEMN | Sounds like you learned a 2000 dollar lesson by the trucker leaving without paperwork. |
|
| |
|
| There was about that many that ended up in the westbound lanes of Hwy 34 east of Fairfield last Tuesday afternoon after a trailer gate wasn't latched..... |
|
| |
|
SE IA | Ha! That thought crossed my mind too when I discovered the short count. Definitely wasn't our truck. Saw the driver of the loose hogs was on the bookface fessing up to his mistake. |
|
| |
|
SC MN | Do you work with an order buyer for that packer? When I was raising pigs I always arranged marketing through their buyer who also arranged trucking. The only person who could confirm your count would be the trucker, who in my case would have been a regular trucker that my order buyer would have trusted to be truthful. |
|
| |
|
Ne Nebraska | I bet if they had an animal abuse claim the video would be there! |
|
| |
|
Sioux Center, Iowa | I'm not an expert, but I believe the lower end security systems overwrite at 14 days. I would be surprised if a more expensive system wasn't at least that long, or longer. |
|
| |
|
northwest tennessee | How did they pull that off? |
|
| |
|
SW MN - mt. lake/windom | I would be willing to bet 20-30 percent of the loads the counts don’t match across the industry. We have seen some counts over and some counts under. Can’t always say that it’s always the packers fault. The cameras are there for the packers benefit they will very seldom use them to recount for the producer. Not many times have I seen counts off that far. We have got correction a couple different times but it needs to be done same day, has nothing to do with camera data collection has all to do with accounting and reconciling inventory daily at the plant, they will not go back and change counts after the fact, that’s admitting fault and they have inventory discrepancies that get corrected daily. The main factor that gave us just cause for correction was that the plant uses a truck scale inbound and our yield factor was significantly off from historical data.
IMO small claims will get you nowhere you have no factual data to state the error was theirs.
For future protocol, best practice would be camera with time stamp at your barn, scale truck as close to barn as possible and scale truck as close to packer as possible with time stamps. Realistically, may not be economically feasible but you will have a stronger case to get correction if you at least have truck weights and can compare past history of live weights to carcass weights.
We ran into a problem with cull sows going to a cull sow buyer and sow weights appeared to be low in comparison to other outlets, after we set protocol to weigh every truck and let the buyer know of our new protocol the issue did not surface again. Moral of the story, in the hog business trust but verify, it is your responsibility to verify to validate inaccuracies of all outgoing (and incoming) products to the farm.
Probably not what you wanted to hear but if by chance you have truck weights, you can take that to your buyer and may get a correction, they still will not correct inventory but will give a misc credit on future load for dollar amount. |
|
| |
|
south dakota | If following the same track are there lots of mutes and heavy or lite hogs that you know does not match the weights that you loaded? |
|
| |
|
SE IA | Agree with your thoughts. Changes will definitely be made on our end to be more timely in finding errors. I wouldn't question a pig or two, as long as weights are in line. This load is off drastically. Our yield on this load was 78% vs normal of 72-73%. Packer still says that's too bad, we're good on our end. |
|
| |
|
| td1 - 1/25/2024 20:49 I would be willing to bet 20-30 percent of the loads the counts don’t match across the industry. We have seen some counts over and some counts under. Can’t always say that it’s always the packers fault. The cameras are there for the packers benefit they will very seldom use them to recount for the producer. Not many times have I seen counts off that far. We have got correction a couple different times but it needs to be done same day, has nothing to do with camera data collection has all to do with accounting and reconciling inventory daily at the plant, they will not go back and change counts after the fact, that’s admitting fault and they have inventory discrepancies that get corrected daily.
We know how many we load, every load except the last load out of a barn has the same number on the trailer with compartments being filled with the same corresponding head every time. We count them and the trucker counts them.
Once in a while we have a load that is off 1-2 head, the plants that we deliver to will recount using the video IF pushed hard enough to do so.
But the issue needs to be brought up the same day, preferably by the trucker before the empty truck pulls away from the chute.
As for the disappearing tattoos, that happens all the time. Its not that the tattoo disappears, its that the guy reads the tattoo # and types it into the computer as the shackles go by quite possibly has the most boring job on earth and occasionally falls asleep. Its not uncommon to have a few head that get paid on the load avg on every single load because of missing tattoo numbers.
A packing plant is a pretty interesting thing to tour if you ever get the chance to do so, esp if you have the opportunity to tour it while its running.
Edited by Kooiker 1/25/2024 22:25
|
|
| |
|
| Not a pig guy but if your yield was higher is it safe to guess you got paid on your weight just not the correct head count? If it’s just a head count number you wouldn’t be shorted pay if the weight is all in on the group? |
|
| |
|
SE IA | That should be true to a certain extent, and to be honest it seems like the more I learn on this load, the more I get confused. Much of the problem comes in on the sort loss side of things. Because yield was artificially inflated, my calculated carcass weights were at 234 on this load, which resulted in a high percentage of overweight carcasses. This lead to a sort loss premium of $-.67/cwt, whereas normally we'd see a positive $1.50-2.00 premium. At the end of the day, I looked at my $/pig paid and it was about $11 less per pig on this load compared to other loads in this group with similar base market prices. That's how I came up with my initial estimate of around a ~$2,000 loss. At this point, it's probably a moot point and it's a live and learn moment. |
|
| |
|
E.Central MN | Wow, packers sure have a lot of tricks up their sleeve. |
|
| |
|
Croswell, Michigan | I'd be curious to know how many guys ever got paid for 'more' pigs than they thought they loaded on the truck? |
|
| |
|
Extreme se nebr. | happyhog - 1/25/2024 20:53
If following the same track are there lots of mutes and heavy or lite hogs that you know does not match the weights that you loaded? yes I have had very heavy carcasses that did not match with what was loaded. |
|
| |
|
Nebraska | we all know the answer to that question is 0. |
|
| |
|
Minnesota | That’s crazy if 20% to 30% of the loads don’t match up |
|
| |
|
sw ontario | John we have seen it , but we go to a small plant and they have a camera on receiving door so they can go back and count . Big benefit in many ways dealing with owners of the plant.
|
|
| |
|
South Central MN | Sent 2 loads last week that averaged 310. both truckers, my 2 loaders, and myself all thought they'd be 280 tops. They asylum went down the aisle 3 wide, which they never do at that size. Weird loads. |
|
| |
Head count discrepancy at packer with hogs
